The NYC Transit Graphics Standards Manual

Retro nostalgia.

If you haven’t already seen this we’re looking into the New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual – also known these days as a style guide. It comes from 1970 and has been lovingly logged here by the collective efforts of Niko Skourtis, Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth.

This Standards Manual was designed by Massimo Vignelli. His ethos was, “If you can design one thing, you can design everything,” and we can’t help but agree.

Vignelli worked firmly within the Modernist tradition, and focused on simplicity through the use of basic geometric forms in all his work. Something that makes this style guide or the “New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual” timeless.